Jason Collins to Oprah: I Wish I Would Have Told Ex-Fiancee 'Complete Truth'

Jason Collins, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, said he had not “reached acceptance” yet with his homosexuality when he broke off his engagement with Carolyn Moos, the former Stanford and WNBA basketball player whom he had dated for eight years.

“At that point, I hadn’t reached acceptance in myself yet,” Jason told Oprah, according to the Huffington Post. “Being in the closet… it really is going through the 12 steps of denial and shame and anger and all of that. I hadn’t reached acceptance yet.”

Collins told Oprah that he knew “deep down” that he could not go through with the marriage. Collins said he remembered thinking, “‘You’re going to be ruining her life and your life, and leading to a life of unhappiness.’ I’m still trying to process it, but ultimately, I [made] the right decision.”

“I wish I would have told her the complete truth at that time,” he admits. “[But] I wasn’t there yet.”

Collins reportedly told Moos that he was gay and that was the reason he ended their engagement a week before he announced his homosexuality in Sports Illustrated last Monday to much fanfare.